The moment we’ve all been waiting for is finally here – the Analogue 3D has finally been revealed and it’s available for pre-order next week! And yes, it looks better than we could have ever imagined. It was exactly a year to the day (October 16th, 2023) that we wrote an article about Analogue posting a mysterious picture of their 4K N64 console that used no emulation. Can you imagine what that did to us as 90s kids who grew up with the N64? It blew our minds, and we’ve been waiting for more information and pictures ever since.
The Analogue 3D is one of the most beautiful consoles I’ve seen in a heck of a long time, marrying retro feels with modern tech perfectly. It comes in black & white variants and looks like an N64 but a sleeker, more advanced version. It doesn’t ship with a controller but you can by a sleek controller from 8BitDo for wireless gameplay with this when it goes up for pre-order. The console is region-free, and it’s 10 times the resolution of the original N64!
Using your original N64 cartridges (no ROMS), this reimagined console removes input lag or any inaccuracies and lets us enjoy the games of the past in the best possible way – it’s what characters like Banjo-Kazooie and Glover deserve! They’re keen to make this known on the official page for the Analogue 3D, stating that ‘Analogue 3D does not play copyrighted ROM files, it plays legacy game cartridges via the cartridge slot’.
Check out the official tech specs below.
The Analogue 3D uses 3DOS, which is an evolution of the Analogue Pocket OS we’ve previously been acquainted with. According to Analogue, it’s been ‘engineered directly into a 220k LE Altera Cyclone 10GX, the most powerful FPGA Analogue has ever used in a product‘.
Analogue also say that their new console finally achieves the harmony between the nuances of the N64’s games and the essence of the CRT. It allows for ‘CRT reference quality’ in 4K on your HDTV in ‘an unprecedented transformation’ that goes beyond upscaling, something that I’m incredibly excited to see in real life.
As always with Analogue products, the Analogue 3D is going to sell out in seconds. The console will cost $249.99, and pre-orders go live on the 21st of October at 8 am PDT. That’s 4 pm in the UK, 5 pm in Mainland Europe, and 2 am on October 22nd if you’re in Canberra, Australia to give you a guide to work off depending on where you’re based.
